The new school year 2016/2017 has started at Real Madrid Graduate School - Universidad Europea

Emilio Butragueño, the general director of the Real Madrid Graduate School - Universidad Europea , opened the 2016/2017 school year at the honour box seat at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

Emilio Butragueño, the general director of the Real Madrid Graduate School - Universidad Europea, openend the 2016/2017 school year at the honour box seat at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Other luminaries from the school and Real Madrid attended, including José María García, the Human Resources Director at Real Madrid; Carlos Pérez, the International sales Manager Real Madrid & Alumni at Real Madrid Graduate School and Francisco López Varas, the dean of the Sport Sciences Faculty at Universidad Europea.

Emilio Butragueño welcomed new students from over 40 nationalities: “it is a pleasure to be here with you and to welcome you in such an iconic place for Real Madrid. The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is a home for all Real Madrid supporters and for all football fans. Without this place, it would be impossible to understand our history and it´s an ideal place to welcome you all to the 11th class of the Real Madrid Graduate School."

He also spoke about Real Madrid values: “We've chosen Universidad Europea because it is aligned with our values. Our values distinguish from other organisations and people. They build our personality and they influence our behaviour. This is why we evaluated the values which represent our university. We chose 5 main values: entrepreneurialism, team work, leadership, excellence and integrity because they are part of the history of this football club”.

José María García, the Human Resources Director at Real Madrid, who was the second to speak, used his time to remark on the importance of further education in order to develop professionals. Likewise, he emphasised how the sports sector is requesting more and more professionals and how this sector “has developed a self-knowledge that creates educated professionals for its own sector and also other sectors”. As a matter for fact, for Jose María García “this school not only teaches about the sports industry, but also teaches about how to manage organisations and entities from any other sector”.

Carlos Pérez, the International Sales Manager Real Madrid, told the students “from today's starting point, you have a long race ahead. It is very important for you to sweat every single step”. Likewise, Carlos Pérez encouraged the new class to follow their dreams “make the most of this experience as you´ll meet a lot of great professionals at the school, and you´ll have the chance to learn a lot from them, because improving means learning from others but doing it your own way, and this is the only way to reach excellence” he said.

Francisco López Varas, who is the Dean of Sport Sciences at Universidad Europea, explained how the academic model works at Real Madrid Graduate School - Universidad Europea helps to teach that “sport is an universal language and living on a daily basis with people from different cultural backgrounds will be a key to your learning process”. Furthermore, he highlighted the importance of the international dimension of the School, which belongs to the Laureate Network of International Universities.